Saturday, September 16, marks the official start of the campaign season for Coastside Democrats.  The Second Annual Sunset Family Potluck will be held from 5 to 8 pm.

Assemblyman Gene Mullin and candidates for school board and other local offices will be on hand to talk about the issues and candidates in the upcoming election on November 7.  Hear about Phil Angelides for Governor, John Garamendi for Lt. Governor, Debra Bowen for Secretary of State and the other state-wide Democratic candidates.  The ballot Propositions will also be discussed.

This is a critical election for Democrats trying to take back California and the Congress. Learn about issues and strategies to help educate and mobilize the community through precinct walking and voter registration, as the absentee ballots go in the mail the first week in October. 

For more information on the Coastside Democratic Club see:  http://www.coastsidedemocrats.org .  To attend the potluck dinner please call Brigid O’Farrell at:  650-728-3380.

Caffé Lucca celebrates its new wine and beer license with the opening of its Coastside Cabaret Saturday starting at 7pm.  The Cabaret features music and comedy, including Susy Boyd, Dan Edwards, Kurt Weitzman, Tim Slappy Babb, Lynn Ruth Miller and Anthony Hill. Tickets are $10 per person.

Young or old, if master guitar playing turns you on, don’t miss Guitarist Larry Coryell at the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society on Mirada Rd in Miramar on September 24th. 

Christened as “a true pioneer of rock-jazz fusion” by the New York Times, Larry is one of the most in-demand guitarists in Rock-Jazz fusion, merging Rock, Jazz, Eastern modes and free-form improv. 

In his recent release, “Traffic”, guitarist Larry Coryell, drummer Lenny White and bassist Victor Baily has returned with a “blitzrieg of blazing licks, slamming funk grooves and nasty blues-laced abandon.”

Here’s an opportunity to see them in a small venue, right in your own Coastside backyard.  The Bach Society is located right on Miramar Beach (same block as the Miramar Restaurant). You can come when the doors open at 3 pm to enjoy the view and food, then listen to two sets starting at 4:30.  Email .

The Coastside Film Society screens “The General” this Friday in Half Moon Bay. Buster Keaton plays a Southern railway engineer who has two loves in his life—his locomotive (The General) and the lovely Annabelle Lee.  When spies steal his train with Annabelle on board Johnnie vows to prove his mettle and win them both back.

“The General is an epic of silent comedy, one of the most expensive films of its time, using hundreds of extras, dangerous stunt sequences, and an actual locomotive falling from a burning bridge into a gorge far below (where its rusted hulk remains to this day). Keaton defies logic again and again with one ingenious comic sequence after another...One of the 10 greatest films of all time!”, according to Roger Ebert.

Bring your kids to show them what popular culture was like when their grandparents or great grandparents were kids.

Friday, Sept 15, 8 pm
Community Methodist Sanctuary, Half Moon Bay
777 Miramontes, Half Moon Bay
Corner of Johnston & Miramontes.
$6.00 donation per adult $3.00 for kids

More info at: http://www.HMBfilm.org

The U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001. A June 1, 2006 editorial in the New York Times states, “Something has gone alarmingly wrong in Afghanistan, previously touted as the Bush administration’s one quasi-successful venture in nation-building....” In the topical thriller, Stinger (Aventine Press, July 1, 2006; Paperback; $13.95), local author Diana R. Chambers sets the stage for the issues and events still unfolding in war-torn Afghanistan.

On Wednesday, September 13th at 7 PM, Diana Chambers will read from her latest suspense novel, Stinger, at Moon News Bookstore, 315 Main Street, Half Moon Bay. Stinger tells the story behind the story, the story of how this ancient Silk Road land became once again a crossroads of invaders and spies.  Stinger is a political thriller whose subtext relates to the ongoing Great Game that the world leaders play, their pawns in this case the Afghan people themselves. 

The Coastside Chess Club presents the First Annual Pumpkin Chess Championship at the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival this October 14th and 15th to promote, encourage, and revitalize the sport of chess on the coastside.

The Championship will draw players from all over the Bay Area, including children and adults from our own Half Moon Bay coastside. Prizes will be awarded including books, games, and trophies/medals to top 10 scorers, plus prizes for each grade K-12 and top academic teams. All adult matches will complete by 3:30 PM Saturday. Youth matches complete by 12:30 PM Saturday with the Youth Championship playoff at 1:00 PM Sunday. This event will be supervised by World Championship Arbiter Dr. Eric Schiller.

There is a $20 entry fee with proceeds benefitting the Coastside Academic Chess Club and the Half Moon Bay Beautification Committee. Youth registration and check-in is on Saturday from 10:00 AM to 10:45 AM and adult registration and check-in is from 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM. Pre-registration and further details are available on the http://CoastsideChess.org web site.

The Chess Lot will be conveniently located on the East side of Main Street at Le Petite Baleen Swim School parking lot, 775 Main Street, Half Moon Bay.

Summary of activities
Speed-Chess Prize Tournament, BugHouse Chess Event, Chess Simul with Dr. Schiller, Chess Lessons for Beginners, Chess Demo, Book and Software, Chess Art.

Our Mission
Coastside Chess Clubs aspires to be an outstanding educational-athletic organization that provides a high-quality experience to every athlete. A high-quality experience is one in which every athlete…

• Is coached using the principles of Positive Coaching*
• Has fun playing the game
• Feels like an important part of the team regardless of performance
• Learns “life lessons” that have value beyond the game
• Learns the skills, tactics and strategies of the game and improves as a player

• John DiNapoli, 650-245-1551
• Coastside Chess Web Site, http://coastsidechess.org
• *For more information about the Positive Coaching alliance, http://www.positivecoach.org

To celebrate the midpoint of a community campaign to build the Coastside Adult Community Center, the public is invited to a free “Open” House event at the site of the planned center on Saturday, September 16, 2006 from 4:00 to 6:00pm at Main Street and Arnold Way in Half Moon Bay [Google map].

The event will feature a full-size outline of the actual building, imaginative building “tours,” refreshments, entertainment, prizes, and information on local services for seniors and adults with disabilities. 

There will be a brief program to let the community know more about how the new building will serve the growing number of seniors and disabled adults on the Coastside.  The 15-minute program, scheduled for 4:45, will include brief remarks by California State Assembly Member Gene Mullins, Half Moon Bay Mayor Marina Fraser, and Coastside Adult Community Center staff and campaign representatives.

Montara artist Robert Buelteman is one of two artists featured in an exhibit at the Presidio Officers’ Club from August 25 to November 19.

Since 1999, Mr. Buelteman has made extraordinary photographic images without the use of cameras, lenses, or computers. With photographic paper, plant life, and electrical current, Mr. Buelteman captures the intricacies and structural secrets of his subjects. The process produces brilliantly lit portraits of plants and flowers, capturing their essence in a glowing, otherworldly blaze of color. The exhibit’s 25 large format images are on loan from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and are part of Mr. Buelteman’s Through the Green Fuse series.

The exhibit also features Edward S. Ross’s 85 scientific, patiently photographed close-ups of insects alter the viewer’s sense of scale and reveal intimate details about the entwined world of plants and insects. Mr. Ross is curator emeritus of entomology at the California Academy of Sciences. When he could not find candid photos of living insects, he taught himself close-up flash photography. He has published many scientific papers and his insect photographs have appeared in many books and magazines. He lives in a Japanese- style compound set in a hilly garden with a view of Mt. Tamalpais. At 91, he continues his work as an entomologist and nature photographer.

The last gallery in the exhibit space is called “The Hive” a kid’s space where parents and youngsters can engage in minds-on, hands-on activities. Information about how scientists name things, evolution, flowering plants and the critical role insects play in our lives on Earth.

The Presidio Officers’ Club Exhibition Hall is at 50 Moraga Avenue at Arguello in San Francisco.

The ninth Annual Half Moon Bay Surf Classic scheduled for August 25 and 26 has been cancelled.

The event is designed to provide a competitive surfing competition for those living on the Coastside.  Organizers have already begun planning for the 2007 Classic. Refunds for registered participants are being processed and should be received by the end of August.

According to Recreation Supervisor Dirk Alvarado, “The uncertainty of Highway 1 slowed down commitments and progress and no one expected it to be completed this quickly. Since there is short window of time due to weather and other events the organizers thought it would be better to cancel this years event instead of putting on an event of lesser quality.”

This story is based on a press release from the city Parks & Recreation Department.

UNDER THE RAINBOW (Niji No Shita Ni.)—75 mins—is an outsider’s, inside view of modern Japanese life. Director J.R. Heffelfinger is an 25 year old American from Brooklyn who moved to Japan to make a film.  He spent two years in Japan raising the money he needed to produce his film by working as a school teacher and paid medical subject.

With no crew, save for the friend who was free one day to hold the boom mike, Heffelfinger single-handedly put this picture together. OK some great actors helped.  Despite the challenges and responsibilities of being, the writer, director, producer, cinematographer, editor even the location scout and craft services person, he was able to create a great film.

The plot? The story focuses on Yasuda, an aging salesman who works for Rainbow Travel in Tokyo.  At home, Yasuda lives in a fantasy world of pop music, pachinko parlors and stories of tragic teenage despair.  Through the dreams of this very Western Director we get real a glimpse of modern Japanese society.

Director, J.R. HEFFELFINGER is flying in from Japan for the screening of his film.

Friday August 18, 8:00 pm
Community Methodist Sanctuary, Half Moon Bay
777 Miramontes, Half Moon Bay
$6.00 donation per person